In the past few years, MCs of the Caucasian persuasion have started making a name for themselves in hip-hop. Brown-educated MC Paul Barman, whom The New
York Times has called “a rap Woody Allen,” stands out from the crowd with his intelligent lyrics, distinctive flow, and unique mix of self-deprecating humor
and Ivy League swagger.
For his 1999 debut EP It’s Very Stimulating, produced by hip-hop legend Prince Paul, Barman wrote rhymes that would make even Jenna Jameson blush, but that
are so silly that the listener is too busy laughing to be shocked. In “MTV, Get off the Air, Part 2” he raps, “I removed her sanitary napkin with my teeth/
and there was a planetary backspin underneath/ I faced her wound/ let’s do a pap smear with a taster spoon/you can sleep in the guest cot/ I’ll sleep in your
wet spot.” But whereas sexual braggadocio is the norm in hip-hop, in “The Joy of Your World,” Barman warns, “If you want sex with me/be prepared for bad
sex/and slapstick/even Chapstick/won’t help my chapped dick/When I’m with a naked chick.”
Barman also raps about things that few other rappers do, such as AP tests, MCATs, and post-graduate work. And as befits his Ivy League pedigree, his songs
are chock full of sly literary and cultural references; he drops the names of everyone from feminist writer bell hooks, to Austrian impressionist Egon
Schiele, to filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski, noted for his films Red, White, and Blue. On “Salvation Barmy” Barman complains, “My pissed off
jimbrowsky/turned three colors like Krzysztof Kieslowski.”
After his well-received EP, Barman took a little time off, touring and making guest appearances on the Del the Funky Homosapien and Dan the Automator
collaboration Deltron 3030 and Masta Ace’s Disposable Arts. At his shows, Barman has distinguished himself with his zany antics–he has been known to draw
caricatures of audience members while he raps.
While Judaism isn’t central to his work, Barman says he does “make occasional references” in his songs. At the climax of “The Joy of Your World,” Barman
raps, “It was time to copulate/but we didn’t want to populate/so my bold groin/reached for my gold coin/prophylactic/I unwrapped it/You can’t know how I
felt/It wasn’t a gold coin condom/It was chocolate Chanukah gelt.” “For a while,” says Barman, “I was throwing out gold coin condoms with gold coin
chocolates at the same time when that joke comes up at the end of my song.”
Never having had a bar mitzvah, however, Barman isn’t particularly connected to Jewish religion. But that’s not to say that this Isaac Bashevis
Singer-reading rapper hasn’t given serious thought to Jewish history, culture, and his own identity. “I think that if one would take the overhead view of
most third-generation Jewish-Americans, it’s the third-generation American part of us that makes us more interested in our culture than our faith,” he says.
“Regardless, I don’t think we’re doing anything that departs from the natural evolution of becoming Americanized. For example, our parents were a little
more Jewish than us, their parents were a lot more Jewish than them, and their parents didn’t even speak English. That’s why I believe that not feeling very
connected to Judaism as a faith is incredibly normal.”
In fact, Barman sees his own ambivalence as connected to his Jewishness. “It seems to me that being confused, non-committal, and ambivalent about your own
identity is an inherent Jewish quality,” he says. “I think pretty much that everything Woody Allen puts down is how I feel.”
